Likely Fictional Texts

Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck) almost tears up when he tells Will Hunting (Matt Damon) how he wishes one day to be met by the latter’s vacant apartment — to know that Will had left for a better life. Good Will Hunting (1997) is a story about a genius with “major intimacy issues” who is eventually softened by his effective non-didactic therapist. He ends up driving to Stanford, Palo Alto California, where the privileged and haughty Skylar will fit right in. A sparse and aching Elliott Smith song plays during the last scene, Will’s beat-up car cinemagraphically projected towards the horizon, teaching our lovelorn youth to quit their jobs and irresponsibly drive cross country for impulsive, unexamined love. Gross.